Our adventures in family, fun and faith as well as my random thoughts in adoption, special needs parenting and life in general.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Disney Day 3

June 15, 2009

Okay, so after the kids waking us up at 7am on Sunday, we figured a 7am wake up call would be good to get us started on our next Disney Day...THE MAGIC KINGDOM!!! The MagicKingdom is a HUGE park and being that it's the most popular theme park in the world, youdon't really want to walk through the doors without a plan. (Thank you Jenny :) ) This is all preface to why we were doing what we were doing in the order we were doing them, but really just to explain why we WOKE the kids up on vacation like we did.

Yep, we had to wake them. Seemed only fitting as they did the same to us on the day we NEEDED to sleep in. Seriously though, it didn't take that much convincing and soon we were all fed, dressed and slathered with the appropriate amount of sunscreen for the morning.

The big attraction here was just to see the castle for the kids. They all had maps, but none of them really knew what was coming. We rode the monorail over from the parking lots and from there they got a good view of the castle over the trees. We arrived with time to spare and the kids got to see the opening song and dance by Mickey and Minnie and pals before they dropped the rope and let us in the park. Which was a good thing because it was as hot as it was the day before and we were all seriously wilting.

A short jaunt up Main Street to Fantasyland and we were on our first ride of the day. Peter Pan. I rode with Micah who was silent and still with awe. This was good as I was nervous having forgotten how open those flying boats are. Eek!

Next it was over to The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh then on to the big hit of the day for Micah, Space Ranger Spin. I rode with Hannah who I discovered LOVES spinning around and at one point took over the controls and nearly made me sick. Andy rode with the boys who were both taking their mission very seriously and shooting those targets with gusto.

Leaving the ride affectionately named by Micah "Buzz Lightyear SPIN!" turned out to be harder than we thought. Micah wanted to go again, NOW! He's still adjusting to the idea of waiting and lines. Thankfully, when we left the building, THE Buzz Lightyear was posing for photos and signing autographs with a very short line. SO, off to see Buzz we went and after all of Micah bravado about being a SPACE RANGER! seeing the real deal made him a bit shy. He did pose and hug his hero and it the kids all gave him a fist bump. What a great moment.

Next we headed over to the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. During the mini show, Micah was shown on the big screen with a caption saying "Sat on a tiny monster." We all had a good laugh at that and at all they jokes they monsters told. In fact, it's started a rash of bad knock-knock joke telling in our back seat. Oy!

Now it was time to go back to Peter Pan and this time I rode with Hannah. She was nearly as silent as Micah and pointed out all the little things she wanted me to see. Like the volcano and Ariel, the little mermaid and as we flew over the last pirate battle, she exclaimed "AH! The pirates are DEAD!" That's my girl.

Across now to Small World were more blessed AC was promised. By now we had all sufficiently melted and sticky. You can see photo of the kids in line at this point. Boy am I glad I made sure they all had hats and sunglasses. And a misting fan. And water in the backpack. And frequent breaks in AC. Have I mentioned the heat?

Small world was fun for all. The kids like the boat and the music, Andy and I liked the AC and simply sitting. Well, I should say I liked the sitting. Turns out that it wasn't some rough roller coaster we needed to fear for Andy's back, it was a 50+ year old boat ride. Thankfully it just jarred him and he's just a little sore.

After Small World we decided to brave Snow White. We'd been warned that this was a fairly dark and scary ride, (Heck, Disney even has signs on the outside that say that) but we decided to brave it since Hannah really wanted to see a princess. Micah was NOT happy about this turn of events because he wanted to head back to "Buzz Lightyear SPIN." But kicking and screaming we pulled him from the stroller and into the line. It didn't take long for him to stop and get excited about Snow White though and they all LOVED it! In fact, it was Hannah's favorite ride thus far. Thankfully the line is usually short and we should be able to ride it at least once more later in the week.

To Micah's great pleasure, we continued walking over to "Buzz Lightyear SPIN!" We got right on with our Fast Pass and rode again. The kids loved it, again! I think Disney has a really hit with this one. :)

Finally, we crossed over to Carousel of Progress. A few years ago I heard that the Disney folks wanted to shut this ride down, I'm glad they didn't. Even Micah was on the edge of his seat watching.

Time to leave the park, we walk out of Tomorrow Land and towards Main Street. It was really crowded and we soon realized that they we blocking of the road for a parade. Finding a hole big enough for a stroller and a couple of kids, we squeeze in and saw the parade. They got to see Woody, Jessie, Mr. Incredible, Frozone, Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale and a few others. Very cool and awesome timing.

It was now time to head home for naps. Which we all took and sleep for nearly 3 hours. Our plan was to eat in and then head to the pool, but a thunderstorm changed that plan. We went out to eat at IHop and then to Target to return some stuff we didn't need and buy some stuff we did. When we got home at 7pm, there wsa still plenty of light and the skies had cleared. So we headed off ot the pool for an hour then home to bed.

It was a long full day that we all enjoyed. Hey, what can I say, it's the Happiest Place on Earth!